Let’s imagine for a moment that there has been an arc flash incident in your workplace. Thankfully, no one was hurt but it was certainly a wake-up call for the employees and the organization. Everyone feels very lucky that they walked away relatively unscathed, but they can’t help but wonder “what could we have done to avoid this?” Or better yet, “what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”

In this article, I will go over three important things to consider as follow-up actions to an arc flash incident.

First things first… Review the incident

A proper incident investigation where the focus is on determining the route cause will definitely get you pointed in the right direction. Ultimately an arc flash happens because equipment fails but the trick is to determine why it failed. Was it improper maintenance, outdated or incorrect procedures, or uninformed employees? Often times it may have been a combination of things that lead to the incident.

Secondly, seek expert advice

This step could be done concurrently with the first, but regardless of that if you have had an incident in your workplace and are not quite sure where to turn next, expert opinion will shorten the time it takes to get to the right answer.

Arc flash incidents are probably not your forte, so just like every Olympic athlete has a coach, how do you think you're going to arrive at the right answer without one? Bring in expert advice.

Last but not least… take the right action

Knee-jerk reactions are probably the most common reactions to any incident across all organizations. It’s human nature to want to do something to make one feel as if the problem is resolved. Unfortunately, all too often the action that is taken is not the right action, it’s something that cripples the operation or worse something that merely covers up the underlying issue giving a false sense of security until disaster strikes again.

If you’ve followed my advice on the first two steps then finding the right answer to your problem should be easy. A cost effective, practical solution is always out there, you just need to know where to look.

I hope you found this article useful and if you did please share it using the social media buttons at the bottom of the post!

For more information with regards to on-site training and electrical safety consulting services, you can contact me directly.